Microsoft is still the king in the operating system business.  Well known operating systems such as Mac OS X and Linux (Fedora, Ubuntu, etc…) are trying really hard to topple the king.  These operating systems have some success but not enough to really make Microsoft feels desperate.  As if the operating system wars are not big enough, Google has announced that it will launch its own operating system called as Google Chrome Operating System for everyday people to use in the second half of 2010.

Google launched Chrome browser nine months ago, and millions of users are in love with this browser.  Firefox and Chrome browsers are killing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser slowly.  Will Google be able to repeat the success for its new operating system as with its Chrome browser?  The good news about Google Chrome Operating System — it will be free to use.

Everyone knows that Google is a serious company that has provided countless of awesome products, and many of these products are free to use — Google’s search, Google Earth, Youtube, Gmail, and countless more.  With the announcement of the soon to be released Google Chrome Operating System, Microsoft may have to be be very worried unless Microsoft thinks Google is just another failed company that is trying to go after its flagship product.  Though with recent campaign that Microsoft launches to target Google directly — the relaunching of its Live search engine to Bing, it’s pretty much an acknowledgement that Microsoft is not taking Google lightly.

As the saying goes, the more the merrier.  More competitors for the operating system market, the better for us all in terms of prices, quality, and innovation.  Check out Google’s official blog on Google Chrome Operating System.

There are open source software that you can totally replace the expensive software in stores.  As a brand new computer purchaser, you may listen to the wrong advice and throw away even more money to buy the expensive software.  Don’t do that!  I’ll list some open source software here that may help you be more productive with your brand new computer, and you don’t even have to thank me for saving you a load of money.

Open Office has many features and similar functionalities as Microsoft Office.  What can you do with Open Office?  You can create spreadsheets, create word documents, create a simple database using Open Office’s Base, and create presentation materials such as slideshow and more.

Gimp is as powerful as Adobe Photoshop.  You can create all type of logos, manipulate images, and much more.

Linux is a very powerful operating system that can replace Microsoft’s Windows.  There are way too many Linux versions to be listed here, but I name a few that you can test it out.  Fedora Core, Ubuntu, openSUSE, Debian, PCLinuxOS, Mandriva, Dreamlinux, and PC-BSD.  To get more Linux flavors or find out the official websites for different Linux distributions, you can go to Distrowatch.com.

Firefox is a browser that can replace Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.  Firefox has hundred of plugins and themes that you can use for eye candy purpose and security.

Thunderbird can be as a replacement for Microsoft Outlook.  Read more about Thunderbird…

VLC media player plays huge number of media format such as MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, MPEG-1, mp3, ogg, aac, and so on.

Clamwin is an open source anti-virus software that is very effective in revealing new and older computer viruses.

This list may grow as I’ll be testing and adding more open source software that work on Windows.  If you know any, please feel free to suggest through comments.